The Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) has announced that the festival’s 25th anniversary lineup will feature the North American premiere of Simon Curtis’ Goodbye Christopher Robin as the Friday Centerpiece film in Southampton. The film, which follows the life of author A.A. Milne and his relationship with his son, leading to the conception of the beloved character Winnie the Pooh, stars Domhnall Gleeson and Margot Robbie. HIFF Honorary Board member Carter Burwell is the film’s composer.
HIFF will screen the East Coast Premiere of Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri as the Saturday Centerpiece in East Hampton. Sam Rockwell and Frances McDormand star in the film which follows a woman in conflict with her local police department as she attempts to solve her daughter’s murder case. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri received the Venice Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay by Martin McDonagh.
![]() |
Domhnall Gleeson and Margot Robbie star in Goodbye Christopher Robin. (Courtesy Photo) |
“The addition of Goodbye Christopher Robin and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri as Centerpieces are sure to please audiences for their emotional depth, brilliant performances and captivating storylines,” said Hamptons International Film Festival Artistic Director David Nugent. “We hope audiences enjoy these first-look opportunities, as well as the additional variety of creative voices and diverse stories playing at this year’s festival.”
HIFF has revealed that Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water, starring Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon and Richard Jenkins, Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me by Your Name, starring Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet – one of this year’s 10 Actors to Watch – and Fatih Akin’s In the Fade, starring Diane Kruger, are among Spotlight Films. The Shape of Water, which won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival, follows a janitor employed at a hidden high-security government laboratory whose life is forever changed when she finds a secret classified experiment. Call Me by Your Name tells the story of a young boy’s summer romance when a charming gentleman arrives in Italy to work with his family. In the Fade explores a woman’s struggle to overcome the loss of her family after a Neo-Nazi terrorist attack.
Simon Curtis, Carter Burwell, Diane Kruger, and Armie Hammer will attend the festival in support of their projects.
Greg Campbell’s Hondros, which takes a look at the life of Chris Hondros, one of the world’s most acclaimed war photographers who was killed in action at the age of 41, has taken home top honors of HIFF’s Conflict and Resolution category, while the Compassion, Justice, and Animal Rights category will honor Allison Argo’s The Last Pig, which explores a man in the crossroads of life during his last summer as a pig farmer, with the Zelda Panel “Giving Voice to the Voiceless” Award, sponsored by Zelda Penzel.
![]() |
Call Me by Your Name stars Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer. (Courtesy Photo) |
The Documentary Competition will feature Gustavo Salmerón’s Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle, Jennifer Peedom’s Mountain, Jason Kohn’s Love Means Zero, Jed Rothstein’s The China Hustle, and 11/8/16.
The Narrative Competition will showcase Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson’s Icelandic narrative Under The Tree, Carla Simón’s Summer 1993, Ali Asgari’s Disappearance, Cory Finley’s Thoroughbreds, and Oh, Lucy!
The 25th annual Hamptons International Film Festival will be held Thursday, October 5 through Monday, October 9. Founders Passes are currently available for purchase.
For more information, visit hamptonsfilmfest.org.